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Growing up, you thought
your Daddy was the fastest, the strongest, the smartest man
alive. If something needed fixing or making, he was your
guy. Everybody knew your Pops – and what if that was because
he was famous?
Joshua David Stein and his
colleagues at Fatherly asked that question of more than
three dozen children of notable dads whose names were in the
news, sometimes daily for a while. People saw their fathers'
public faces – but what were those Dads like in private?
Habiba Alcindor remembers
spending summers with her dad, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and
trying "to play... basketball with him, but he wouldn't let
us get the ball."
Samuel L. Jackson's
daughter says Jackson is "a big nerd," while Garry Trudeau's
son recalls the awe he felt when inside his father's studio.
Evel Knievel's son was warned never to be a chip off the ol'
block, while Bruce Lee's son says that his father has been
absent for years but is still a guiding force.
Brandon Jenner's "Dad
remained distant for much of my life." Pablo Escobar's son
admits that his father was "100 percent responsible for his
crimes," but he was also "a wonderful father." Lucion Gygax
writes of his dad, the game-maker who held many jobs in
order to take care of his family. Erin Davis remembers the
honor of playing onstage with his father, Miles, and being
treated as a peer.
And Jim Sullivan writes of
a mystery solved and a shocking, heartbreaking truth: the
father he never knew was also a Father.
There's a lot to like
about To Me, He Was Just Dad, starting with the
length of its offerings: the tales in here are each about
three pages long and ultra-to-the-point.
This makes them very
no-nonsense and that's great for readers who don't want
fluff. Just FYI, though: this wide variety of
succinctly-told tales stands out, in part, because author
Joshua David Stein includes essays that are
less-than-complimentary. That should tell you firmly that
this book is not a particularly sunny paean to fatherhood;
instead, it's sometimes emotionally raw, funny, sometimes a
bit on the competitive side, and sometimes an awful lot sad.
Even so, those warts absolutely belong in this book, as an
underscore, to balance it, and to keep it from becoming
needlessly saccharine.
Don't misunderstand: it's
still a sweet book; still a great gift for kids over 25 or
Dads of any age; still a quick, enjoyable read. It's just a
little sharp sometimes, and that's a good thing. To Me,
He Was Just Dad is great for Pops, Papa, Daddy, or
whatever you call him.
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